New laptop help

[Endlessnameless]

Was looking to get a new laptop. Preferably a business class one with a dedicated graphics card. I would prefer new but have actually been looking at some used elitebooks. Would like to keep the price tag under 1k. Any ideas for online stores would be great. Have been mainly checking the bay.

 

[cdamm]

hit up VT. he may have an extra elitebook or two floating around. I got one from him and its awesome. i7, 1gb dedicated graphics card, 8gb ram, great screen. Handles a lot of stuff. was super cheap for what i got.

 

[Cylotron]

When you say "dedicated", you do in fact mean a removable/exchangeable graphics card right? If so, those types of laptops usually start around $1,200. They also make laptops with geforce/radeon chips integrated into the motherboard. They can still do some gaming & are cheaper. Usually for something like that you're looking around $600 - $700 new.

 

[Endlessnameless]

When you say "dedicated", you do in fact mean a removable/exchangeable graphics card right? If so, those types of laptops usually start around $1,200. They also make laptops with geforce/radeon chips integrated into the motherboard. They can still do some gaming & are cheaper. Usually for something like that you're looking around $600 - $700 new.

Looking for one that doesn't rely on the integrated intel stuff for handling video. Like nvidia, etc. Also would like one that's not an ultrabook (super thin) so that you have easy access to components. I may pm vt and see if he has anything available. I currently have an i5 elitebook and am very impressed with their durability. My 4 year old knocked it off the couch and it booted up just fine. Screen wasn't damaged or anything.

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[Cylotron]

An easy way to tell if a laptop truly has 'dedicated' graphics, is the model # of the gpu. For instance, Nvidia... if it's an x60, x80, x90 then it's dedicated. So something with a gtx 960m would be dedicated.
If it's a lower # like a x30, x45, x50.... those are integrated.

Also, a dedicated system would only have an i7 cpu(anything with an i3 or i5 isn't).

I see on bestbuy.com there' an MSI for $599 in the 'gaming laptops' section. It's an i5 and has Nvidia GT920m graphics. It can do some gaming sure, but the Nvidia gpu is a chip integrated into the motherboard(not a separate dedicated card).
These days, systems like that not only have the gpu integrated into the motherboard... but the cpu as well. So you can't upgrade either part & if one of those goes bad, you need to replace the whole motherboard.

 

[Heinz]

Dedicated just means non-reliant on system RAM for graphics memory, more so now it means non-CPU provided GPU. Any laptop with a NVIDIA or AMD provided GPU is a dedicated GPU. The 'integration' tag is reserved wholly for the on-die GPU's provided by the icore series.

Laptops with a miniPCIE slot where the GPU is a separate card, well that's the exception to the rule AFAIK.

 

[Endlessnameless]

An easy way to tell if a laptop truly has 'dedicated' graphics, is the model # of the gpu. For instance, Nvidia... if it's an x60, x80, x90 then it's dedicated. So something with a gtx 960m would be dedicated.
If it's a lower # like a x30, x45, x50.... those are integrated.

Also, a dedicated system would only have an i7 cpu(anything with an i3 or i5 isn't).

I see on bestbuy.com there' an MSI for $599 in the 'gaming laptops' section. It's an i5 and has Nvidia GT920m graphics. It can do some gaming sure, but the Nvidia gpu is a chip integrated into the motherboard(not a separate dedicated card).
These days, systems like that not only have the gpu integrated into the motherboard... but the cpu as well. So you can't upgrade either part & if one of those goes bad, you need to replace the whole motherboard.

Thanks for all the info guys. Right now I have an i5 that has an nvidia nvs 5100m. I assume it's dedicated. Would like to upgrade to an i7 quad-core cpu with a dedicated graphics card. I realize with those standards and my money situation new is probably out of my reach. So I will probably go the used route.

 

[Cylotron]

Thanks for all the info guys. Right now I have an i5 that has an nvidia nvs 5100m. I assume it's dedicated. Would like to upgrade to an i7 quad-core cpu with a dedicated graphics card. I realize with those standards and my money situation new is probably out of my reach. So I will probably go the used route.

Look on ebay for an Asus G73 series laptop. They were $1,299 - $1,699 when new. They are i7 systems and came with higher end gpu's(such as a GTX 460 or a Radeon 5870).
They can still handle most new games just fine & you should be able to find one for less then $400.